Personal History

Chang left his homeland far to the east after being expelled from his monastery for frequent eloping to the local town and drunken misconduct. What the monks did not know is that he secretly worked in the taverns by night to pay for medicines for his dying mother. When these finally failed, he fell into a drunken haze and half destroyed relics of the temple, leading to his expulsion. He travelled west, following clues to seek his father, a western bard who had used magics to charm his way into his mother's bed, leaving her with the illegitimate Chang (who was shipped out to the local monastery at an early age to hide the shame). Chang sought only to tell his father of his existence and to start a new life in new lands. But the young monk had led a relatively cloistered life and was naive to the ways of the world and was duped by slavers into a 'working voyage' across the sea.

Chang awoke in chains at sea, having been drugged by the slavers in his 'cabin'. Over the slow and harsh months of the enforced servitude that followed, Chang saw great mistreatment of various other slaves during this voyage and bears many scars of the lash upon his own back after claiming the punishments due to others whenever he could. He stood up to his captors on several occasions, and was difficult for them to control due to his great size and unarmed fighting skills. The slavers soon found however that rum seemed to keep the big man quiet and gave him the strength to row for many hours, and this way his addiction was sealed.

One day opportunity presented itself when he was briefly unchained while the ship neared a harbour, and he flung himself overboard, saving himself from drowning by grasping a huge amphora that fell in with him and strangely floated. He arrived in Safeharbour penniless and direction-less, with only his trusty amphora. He swore to fight against tyranny and slavery wherever he could. But first he needed a job. He took employment in a tavern for a meagre wage, but his great skills of balancing multiple flagons of ale stacked up upon a tray even while swaggering drunkenly around tables earned him entertainment value with the regulars, such that his lodgings, food and most importantly drink were thrown in for free. As soon as he could afford it, the monk commissioned an ornate tattoo across the whole of his back of an eastern dragon he had seen in a dream, partially hiding the scars but also symbolizing his powerful spirit of survival and determination to do good. Then one day some heroes visited the tavern, and now the monk has found a new purpose to his life.

Personal Knowledge

Safeharbour is a large town or a small city depending on whether you have ever visited one of the cities on the mainland. It is situated at the mouth of the Dragon River. Two large islands guard the harbour and upon them are the Holy Temple of Solarios and the Royal Palace, the former partially abandoned the latter now home to the First. A high wall protects the city from attacks from both the seaward and landward sides.
You had a dream, the first night on the Free Isles:

A green dragon flys thrice around a tower.

A book on a lectern it's pages endlessly flipping as if in a capricious breeze.

A stocky dwarf soaked to his elbows in blood that drips from his hammer fighting off strange two-headed creatures.

Seven swans fly over an icy lake.

You took employment at the Three Dragons Inn to pay for your stay, before leaving with your new friends.